Best relative rating achievement:

Ladies’ Awards

Prizes (including the first prize) shall be shared where players have the same score.No player can win more than one complete prize.

A player forfeits the right to a rating prize if they are absent for the last round, unless theTournament Director decides otherwise.

ACP Special Prizes

ACP is glad to announce its special prizes for the Isle of Man Chess.com Open 2018. We have managed to provide a special additional prize fund for the ACP Members for the amount of 5000 GBP thanks to the generous sponsorship of Archibaldchess.

The prizes will be distributed as follows:

Three prizes (1500-1000-500 GBP) in the Open section for players who didn't win a higher regular/rating prize in the tournament. The prizes will not be tied, and will be awarded to the three highest ranked ACP Premium Members, who haven't won a higher regular/rating prize.

Three prizes for women (1000-600-400 GBP) for the top three highest ranked ACP Premium Members. These prizes are compatible with the regular/special prizes in the tournament. These special ACP prizes will not be tied.

Eligibility - the players must be actual ACP Premium Members before October 21, 2018.

Tie-break (for deciding who receives the award of a trophy):

In the event of two players tying for first place in the open (i.e. not applicable to the ladies’ awards),the winner of the tournament (plus an extra £500 prize money) will be decided by a play-off on theevening of 28 October, after the completion of all round-9 games. The play-off will consist of twoblitz games with a rate of play of 5 minutes plus an increment of 2 seconds a move, with colours tobe determined by the toss of a coin. If the blitz match finishes equal then the winner will bedetermined by Armageddon with 5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, plus an increment of2 seconds a move from move 61, Black having draw odds. A toss of a coin will determine colours.

In the event of three or more players tying for first place, the top two will be determined by tiebreak,in the following order of priority, and will enter the play-off described above:

The results between the players involved in the tie

Sum of progressive score

Sum of opponents’ scores (Buchholz)

Sonneborn-Berger

Number of won games

British Championship Qualifier:

The highest placed eligible player not already qualified shall qualify for the right to play in the 2018 British Championship, subject to ECF regulations.

Latest News

John Saunders reports: the 2018 Chess.com Isle of Man International was won by Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland after a play-off match with Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan. The two players led going into the last round and drew their ninth round game to finish on 7/9 while none of the four players on 6/8 managed to win in order to tie with them. They each take home a cheque for £37,500 with Wojtaszek also receiving a further £500 for winning the blitz play-off. The initial two-game blitz was tied on 1-1 but Wojtaszek chose White in the Armageddon game and duly won. Seven players finished on 6½: Vladimir Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk (both Russia), Hikaru Nakamura, Jeffery Xiong (both USA), Wang Hao (China), Gawain Jones (England) and Baskaran Adhiban (India).

John Saunders reports: another pulsating day’s chess saw four 2700+ rated players bite the dust, all bar one beaten by players less highly rated than themselves, and in one case more than 200 points adrift. Two leaders emerge from the smoke of battle, Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan) and Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland), who now both have 6½/8, while four more players are half a point behind them and are still in with a chance of a share in the top prize – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Wang Hao (China), Gawain Jones (England) and Jeffery Xiong (USA).

John Saunders reports: another remarkable round at the Villa Marina saw the number of leaders increase by one – the same names as per the round six leader board, plus England’s perennial numero uno, Mickey Adams. There was some fantastic chess played, which it gives me great pleasure to report upon. Before we move on, let’s just record the seven leaders’ names for the record: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland), Wang Hao (China), Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan), Mickey Adams (England) and Jeffery Xiong (USA) all have 5½ out of 7.